Rising Sun Executive Director Jodi Pincus goes to the WISE Summit in Qatar The first day of the WISE Summit, I grab my UN headset, which translates at least five languages, and sit down for the opening session. This year's conference theme is imagine-create-learn: creativity at the heart of education. The opening scene is a theatrical presentation with phenomenal production values. Click here for the video. Her Highness, Sheikha Moza Bint Nassar (The Queen) gets up to speak. She has tremendous style, like Jackie O, and besides being an incredibly interesting woman to look at, I am struck by her leadership and initiative to educate the fifty-eight million out of school children around the world. She is doing remarkable things with her wealth and pushing the boundaries for women in the Middle East. I sit in the room with over 1,800 people from around the globe, 130 countries represented and I remember why I find this conference so exciting. The next speaker is Tony Wagner, first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. He talks about the reality, that education is no longer the key to upward mobility and that creativity is now a moral imperative. In order to prepare children for the 21st century we need to cultivate their creativity, their ability to solve problems differently and that education based on testing and getting the answer right, it not the right kind of education for the 21st century. He went on to say that with the internet, knowledge is now a free commodity like water (although we can debate whether water is free commodity for all) and that information is easily accessible for to all. What matters most is not what you know but what you can do with what you know. Businesses are looking for people who can solve complex analytical problems, collaborate to solve those problems, can figure things out on their own and can innovate. The key question is what must we do differently to develop people’s capabilities to innovate? We are all born curious, and it makes me ponder how can formal and non-formal education – such as Rising Sun’s programs -- foster this. Wagner thinks this can be done by teaching collaboration; teaching that failure is key to innovation; and encouraging risks, failure and mistakes. “Fail early and fail often.” He also says the role of a teacher is as a coach and not a knowledge bearer; that changing education is an economic necessity in an innovation economy. The session made me think about the role of nonprofits a problem solvers to social and environmental problems and how we are part of a system in which the funding doesn't necessarily give us the flexibility to solve these problems creatively through trial and error.

Last week our friends at Build It Green hosted their Water Wise Homes Conference, where building professionals learned from other builders and designers about water-saving practices and technologies. From the simple to the complex, experts covered everything from appliance choices to best practices related to conveyance…

Click here to submit your expression of interest through this Google form! CRITERIA FOR ARTWORK The competition is open to everyone ages 12 and up. Artwork can be existing or newly created, but must adhere to the following criteria: Highlight a water issue or…

Rising Sun Energy Center’s mission is to empower individuals to achieve environmental and economic sustainability for themselves and their communities. Through our California Youth Energy Services (CYES) and Green Energy Training Services (GETS) programs, we strive to achieve our mission and have the most meaningful impact on our participants and for the environment.

After a record-breaking summer, serving 15 cities in the Bay Area, we finally have the opportunity expand to the Central Valley.  We are launching California Youth Energy Service (CYES) in the Central Valley, starting with a fall program in Stockton. But this is just the start! In the summer of…

At Rising Sun Energy Center we strive to think of our annual staff retreat as an opportunity to continue to build a robust sense of connectedness and community amongst our staff. As a whole, according to Elena Foshay, Director of Adult Programs, and Julia Kim, Marketing and Development Coordinator, the retreat…

Our California Youth Energy Services (CYES) program achieved record-breaking impacts this year!  For seven weeks this summer, Rising Sun employed 132 young adults ages 15 to 22 as Energy Specialists or Leaders-in-Field-Training (junior managers), providing them with intensive training in energy efficiency and water conservation and equipping them with the knowledge and skills to perform Green House Calls. At each Green House Call, which comes at no cost to the community members who receive our services, Energy Specialists assess the home for efficiency, install energy and water-saving equipment, and provide personalized recommendations for further savings.  Last summer, CYES operated sites in 10 cities and served 2,655 households. This year we expanded the program to 15 cities and smashed our goal of serving 3,750 households by serving over 4,300 homes!  Two sites beat the previously-held site record, hitting or exceeding 400 homes each! To celebrate the hard work and great success of the CYES program, Rising Sun’s Leaders-in-Field-Training (LIFT) hosted an end-of-summer barbeque, bringing together the staff from every site that CYES operated in this summer.   Nearly 200 youth, Site Managers, and other Rising Sun staff gathered at the Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland on a beautiful sunny afternoon to have fun and acknowledge the meaningful impact that the entire CYES team made in our communities and for our planet this year.

Rising Sun is actively recruiting for the next GETS training, which begins September 8th. We will be having our FINAL info sessions on Wednesday, August 6th and Wednesday August 20th at 1pm. The info sessions will be held at the offices of Rising Sun Energy Center located at 2998 San Pablo…

Union City This week is the last week we will be serving the citizens of Union City with Green House Call appointments. I am pleased to say that it has been an exciting summer filled with much joy and laughter. Our team is sad that it is our…

Martinez   Continuing their adventure to successfully service home’s in Martinez, the Martisians continue to gather as many appointments as possible. Why just last week they appeared at the food bank yet again to try and round up some more people. They have had their ups and downs but nothing…